The majority of operations performed by a wireless telecommunication system is performed by the base stations of the wireless telecommunication system. For example handovers are initiated and performed by the base stations, call admissions are performed by the base stations, load balancing is performed by the base stations, statistical data is gathered by the base stations and the cells of the wireless telecommunication system are configured by the base stations.
US 2011/0014918 A1 describes a cellular communication system supported by first physical layer processes, second layer user plane control processes and third layer control plane control processes. The first layer process is executed in a base station. A distribution controller allocates the layer processes such that the second layer process is executed in a different network element than the third layer process. The second and/or third layer process may furthermore be allocated to a different network element than the base station executing the first layer process. The second and/or third layer process may be allocated to base stations. This allows improved load balancing and/or may reduce RNC relocations in a system having base station RNC functionality.